Bay Area Athletes Help Rugby Team Tackle the World

Jordan Robertson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PDT, Friday, July 14, 2000

Players on the U.S. National Rugby Team traveled the world this year in search of championship glory and wound up finding camaraderie and concussions beneath the palm trees and the rolling green mountains of the South Pacific last month. The team, called the Eagles, includes a large contingent of Bay Area players from such cities as Berkeley, San Mateo, Vallejo and San Francisco. Competing in the Epson Cup 2000, a six- team tournament, the players traveled this year to Osaka, Japan; Manchester, N.H.; Nuku'alofa, Tonga; and Apia, Samoa. Tomorrow, they play their tournament finale at Boxer Stadium in San Francisco. Matt Kane, 22, a recent University of California at Berkeley graduate, is playing his first season with the Eagles and is just starting to adapt to its hectic schedule.

"This is my first taste of international rugby travel," he said. "It's fun, but you wish you could see more of the countries you go to -- you're so busy with training, practices, meals, tape sessions."

Kane said that, despite the seemingly glamorous life he leads traveling and playing on a competitive team, he misses the simpler things that he took for granted playing in the United States.

"God, I'd love to have my family come down from Seattle" for tomorrow's game, he said from his hotel in Samoa. "You don't get that opportunity when you're in the South Pacific. Your folks just don't get the chance to pick up and go like that, but playing in San Francisco, there might be a chance."

The team, which suits up 22 players each game and plays 15 at a time, placed third in the tournament last year. Its rival tomorrow is the Samoan National Rugby Team, which is competing in its first Epson Cup. The tournament last year had four teams -- United States, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong. Hong Kong is not playing this year, but the Samoa, Fiji and Tonga teams were added.

Kane said he has enjoyed some of his experiences on the road. "Everyone down here is so friendly. They wave and smile and you feel so welcome," he said. "It's just beautiful. I've never been here either, so I'm just trying to take it all in. It's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous."

Wells, who is in his first season with the Eagles, said he likes playing in the expanded format because it encourages intense competition.

"Being able to play at that level, the international level, you take it with open arms," he said. "If you can rise to the occasion, playing at that level is the ultimate goal for every rugby player."

Rugby is like football, in that players run, kick and pass a leather ball toward a goal to get points, while opposing players try to tackle the ball carrier. .

But unlike football players, who wear heavy protective gear, rugby players wear little to guard themselves. And while football consists of plays -- planned moves -- that are separated by huddles and player conversations, rugby features almost continuous action.

Vaea Anitoni, 29, is one of many Eagles players born on foreign soil. Team members come from such cities as New York, Boston, Denver and Chicago, but also from countries such as Australia, England and New Zealand.

Anitoni, who grew up playing rugby in Tonga but has lived in the Bay Area since 1993, said the international competition is increasingly bittersweet.

"It's tough, especially in the states, because we have to work," he said, referring to the lack of a professional rugby league here. "In all the other countries, their job is rugby, like the NFL in the states. It's hard finding time to compete on this high level."

Anitoni, who lives in Vallejo and has been on the Eagles nine years, said rugby players become good friends after a long time on the road with each other.

"It's not like other sports where you compete but afterward you don't socialize with other players," he said. "In rugby, you compete but after that you socialize and you travel and you see other places, other countries together."

TOURNAMENT

The U.S. National Rugby Team plays the
Samoa National Rugby Team
in the Epson Cup 2000 rugby tournament. 4 p.m. Saturday. Boxer Stadium, San Jose Avenue at Ocean. $15 in advance, $20 at the gate. (510) 647-1100.